Cheap blood test heralds speedy stroke diagnosis

Main Category: Stroke
Article Date: 22 Mar 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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A quick and cheap blood test could soon help doctors tell if a patient is having a stroke and help them get the right treatment as soon as possible. Future versions might even be able to distinguish between different kinds of strokes.

Strokes are one of the most common causes of death and disability. Over 80 per cent are caused by a blood clot blocking an artery in the brain, others by a ruptured blood vessel. A quarter of people who have a stroke die, and survivors are usually left with permanent brain damage.

Diagnosing a stroke is often difficult because the symptoms vary widely and resemble those of various other conditions. CT scans are good at spotting bleeds, but far less reliable at picking up the early stages of strokes caused by clots.

'The lack of a rapid diagnostic for stroke is a huge problem,' says Daniel Laskowitz, a neurologist at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina.

Speed matters because clot-dissolving drugs are now available that can reduce brain damage if given within three hours of a stroke. Yet fewer than half of patients who get to hospital in time and are eligible for the drugs actually receive them, a recent study in the US found.

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